By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

It's Autumn.

Pumpkins glow in golden fields. Shorter days, crisp mornings signal winter's approach. Can the holidays be far behind?

Use Autumn's brisk and breezy days to conquer deep-cleaning chores for a clean and comfortable winter home, and wrap up summer's outdoor areas. 

Our Fall Cleaning Chore Checklist will help you prepare home and hearth for the coming of winter:

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

So you think businesspeople are the only folks who need a personal planner? Think again: families need an organizer, too, to keep life moving smoothly on the home front. 

Whether it's called a household notebook, a home management binder or family organizer, this simple idea saves time, cuts stress, and enhances communication in any-sized family or household.

A standard-sized binder stocked with calendars and schedules, planner forms and inventories, a Household Notebook creates a one-stop information center for busy families. Whether it's a carpool schedule or a co-worker's phone number, the Household Notebook holds the information you need to check each day.

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Labor Day weekend ahead! School bells are ringing, football fills the airwaves and September looms. Will the holidays be far behind?

Sure, you're dreaming of the perfect Christmas--then you open your eyes to reality. Looking around the house, it's hard to imagine how to cut the clutter, manage fall cleaning and prepare for Christmas all at once.

How will you bring the current state of domestic chaos into holiday readiness: clean, organized, prepared? You need a holiday plan!

This Sunday, it's time to kick off the Houseworks Holiday Plan and Holiday Grand Plan at sister site Organized Christmas!

Are these plans for you? Unlike the six-week Christmas Countdown, these two holiday plans combine a whole-house deep-clean with holiday preparations. Working week by week, we'll deep-clean and declutter at home, while we prepare for the holiday season in small, sustainable bites.

Along the way, we'll create a personalized Christmas planner to simplify the holidays--and get together in online communities that provide motivation, inspiration and fun.

The fun starts Sunday, August 29! Ready to prepare house and home for the holiday season? Get the plan!

Ready for Christmas with a Holiday Plan

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

In my years as worker, mother and home manager, I have experienced a full range of life’s little organizational challenges.

I have run a business from a home shared with two tiny children and moved cross-country (and back). I've merged two cluttered households into one small city apartment, and lived for eighteen happy years with a card-carrying packrat husband.

Home schooling a child beat them all hands-down, organizationally speaking.

How do I count the clutter? The books. The papers. The biology experiments on the kitchen window. The adult-sized child sprawled on the floor, reading. The record-keeping. College admissions and testing and letters from the correspondence school.

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

Morning Madness! Only the pre-dinner "Arsenic Hour" comes close in the "Calgon, take me away!" category. 

Bathroom fights, soggy cereal, and the ever-present, "Mommy! I can't find my . . . !"  Getting the family out the door in the morning can make any parent want to pull the bedclothes up and hide. 

One small concept can go a long way to taming the morning beast: the family Launch Pad. Just as a spaceship must have a dedicated structure to support liftoff, so family members need a Launch Pad to stabilize them as they blast out the door.

What is a Launch Pad? It's a dedicated space for each family member:

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

Move over, summer--a new school year is coming!

With the start of school, families face new organization challenges. School bells ring--and so do early-morning alarm clocks. Shorter autumn days bring a hectic round of sports, activities and events, and calendars fill with cryptic notes. Can the holidays be far behind?

Get organized now for the best school year ever! Use these ideas to prepare your home and family for the busy days ahead:

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Think Christmas ... in July? Sure--if you want to be prepared for a stress-free holiday season.

Starting holiday planning now makes sense ... and cents! Saving ahead for holiday expenses spreads the financial demands of the Christmas season over several months--and being prepared with a cash budget means you'll be less tempted to put holiday spending on credit cards.

Sister site Organized Christmas has some clever ways to start now to save money for a debt-free Christmas celebration:

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

Ah, summer! Baseball and sunshine, lemonade stands ... and back to school?

Yep. Summer or not, it's time to think about ways to save money shopping for back-to-school clothing and school supplies. Because retailers are poised to begin back-to-school promotions the instant Independence Day fireworks cease to glow, savvy shoppers begin planning now to get the most for their back-to-school dollar.

Hang onto your wallets! With the rise of "back to school" as a two-month marketing exercise for retailers, coupled with cash-strapped school districts placing more of the supply burden onto students' families, it can be a tough job to get the kids outfitted without breaking the bank.

Try these school shopping tips to save money, time and your sanity when shopping for back to school:

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It's June! Flowers are blooming, birds are singing ... and the voice of the yard sale shopper is heard in the land.

Thinking of holding a garage sale or yard sale this year? We've got everything you need to cut your clutter and score some cash with our garage sale tips--but if you're looking for more help, try these free printables for yard sale success:

Printable Yard Sale Checklist

Guide To Planning A Garage Sale (.pdf format) from SuddathRelocation.com

Printable Garage Sale Signs from PaperPrintouts.com

Free Printable Garage Sale Sign from Hoover Web Design

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

They're here! Tumbling from the school bus, fresh from Field Day, with papers and projects and petrified sandwiches spilling in their wake: your children.

Summer vacation is wonderful, no doubt about it. Damp heads and wet bathing suits, backyard tents and fireflies in canning jars. "Look, Mom!" rings out a hundred times a day, from the top of the pool slide to the bug-dotted bottom of an upturned rock.

Here comes the Kool-Aid Mom! She's all sweet smile and tidy clothes, calling cheerful children from the corners of the yard with a bell-like voice and tray of sweating, jewel-toned glasses.

Then there's the second day of summer vacation.

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

Who can imagine summer without summer food? Steaming corn-on-the-cob, each kernel bursting with sweet flavor. Burgers and barbecue. Ice cream sundaes. The crisp red smile of a watermelon wedge, dripping with sweet juice. 

There's a darker side to summer meals. Food budgets groan under the strain of substituting quick-cook steaks and chicken breasts for thrifty stove-top casseroles. Ravenous children make the refrigerator door thump-thump-thump like a dog's tail. Catch-as-catch-can mealtimes, eaten on the run, substitute convenience for nutritional value. 

What's a summer cook to do?

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

Summer's here, hot, high and sweaty. Vacations beckon. The garden takes on a life of its own.

Busy families don't have much time for home chores these months. School's out, travel's in and it's easy to let life slide on the home front.

Still, summer will run more smoothly if you keep tabs on these important areas in the Summer Cleaning Chore Checklist.

Our checklist list tackles hot-weather issues, summer health and safety:

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By Cynthia Ewer
Editor, Organized Home
Author, Houseworks: How to Live Clean, Green and Organized at Home

Every year, one in five American families makes a move --- and this year, it'll be your family on the road.

No doubt about it, moving can present the organizational challenge of a lifetime.

Every habit, every routine, every tiny piece of the mosaic of your life is tossed at random into a huge, cluttered van, to be shaken out and reassembled at the other end. 

It's a daunting task--but you can get organized and cut stress when the moving van arrives.

Moving on? Try these road-tested tips for an organized move:

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